Irish Surfing provides various sporting activities and opportunities for young people through participation in clubs, events and through our national teams.

Irish Surfing is committed to safeguarding children and by working under the guidance of our Irish Surfing Safeguarding Policies our staff, both volunteers and employed, working with our young people, throughout the organisation, seek to create a safe environment for young people to grow and develop.

Irish Surfing’s written Risk Assessment document indicates the areas of potential risk of harm, the likelihood of the risk occurring, and gives the required policy, guidance or process documents require to alleviate these risks.  The list of risks identified are contained in the following categories: Club and Coaching Practices; Complaints & Discipline; Reporting Procedures; Use of Facilities; Recruitment; Communications; and General Risk of Harm.

The Risk Assessment was undertaken on 30 March 2018

Our Child Safeguarding Statement has been developed in line with requirements under the Children First Act 2015, (Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children and Tusla’s Child Safeguarding: A Guide for Policy, Procedure and Practice and  The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 and subsequent guidance. In addition to our Risk Assessment document described above, there are further procedures that support our intention to safeguard children while they are availing of our activities.

Irish Surfing has the following procedures in place as part of our Safeguarding Policies:

• Procedures for the management of allegations of abuse or misconduct by staff or volunteers against a child availing of our activities
• Procedures for the safe recruitment of staff and volunteers to work with children in our activities
• Procedures for access to child safeguarding training and information, including the identification of the occurrence of harm
• Procedure for reporting of child protection or welfare concerns to Statutory Authorities

We recognise that implementation is an ongoing process. Irish Surfing is committed to the implementation of this Child Safeguarding Statement and the procedures that support our intention to keep children safe from harm while availing of our activities. 

Linda Byrne is our national Children’s Officer. Formally a member of the East Coast Surf Club, Linda has been surfing since the early seventies. Linda moved from Bray to Sligo in the late nineties where she runs 7th Wave Surf School. Linda is an ISC Code Of Ethics Tutor. To contact Linda email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Zoe Lally is our Designated Person, This is the person in our organisation tasked with reporting allegations or suspicions of child abuse to Health Services Executive or Social Services (NI) and/or An Garda Siochán / PSNI. To contact Zoe telephone 096 49428 or 0872333789 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Every Irish Surfing club has a Children’s Officer. See our list of Club Children’s Officers. 

 

All adult involved in relevant activities for young people in Irish Surf are required to complete Garda Vetting/ Access NI Check. This is an added measure to help maintain a safe environment of young people in our sport. Garda Vetting Invitation Form Parental consent is required for anybody U18 requesting Garda Vetting Parental Consent Garda Vetting